1 March 2011

Mark this date on your calendars … it should be duly noted:  MaritaBeth made Kyle a shirt.

It is often stated that the shoemaker’s children have no shoes.   Almost any seamstress I know has people in her life who understand that statement as well as any shoemaker’s kid ever did.  (Similarly, every massage therapist I’ve ever known has a significant other who longs for a massage!)  I have dear, dear friends who have (mostly) patiently waited for things they’ve asked me to make for months and sometimes even for years.  And, no one suffers more than my dear husband.  I have many a project just for him, “in the planning stages” or cut out but never sewn together, just waiting for me to be caught up enough with other things to make them happen.  And, it happens so very rarely.  I think the last time I made him anything was probably … 2003?  Sad, I know.

This accomplishment is made even greater because everyone knows I HATE making shirts.  They are time consuming and never, ever, can be sold for enough money to make them worth the time.  In one day of steady hard work, I can make a beautiful skirt set that will easily bear a $300 or higher price tag … or I can make a shirt I can sell for seventy-five bucks– a hundred if it’s really special.

Well, in the process of sorting and cutting fabric this week, I came across this shirt … in cut pieces of a fabulous soft cotton fabric … that I had started to make for Kyle at least three summers ago.  Tonight, he finally has a new shirt.  I love you, honey … Merry Birthday, Happy Christmas …

Incidentally, I was curious about the origins of the saying about the shoemaker’s children … I refer to it often enough, I figured I should learn from whence it came.  Turns out, it’s a “proverb” not a direct quote … and has been a part of human consciousness for at least five or six hundred years!  The earliest reference to it that I could find is this proverb recorded in a collection of such sayings in 1546:

“But who is wurs shod, than the shoemakers wyfe, With shops full of newe shapen shoes all hir lyfe?”

The next recorded reference I found is from the eighteenth century and it refers to the “barefoot bairns” of the shoemaker.  Wife, child, husband … chosen family who live in Austin or Houston or Milwaukee … the point is the same.  You suffer and do without, despite the skills of those who love you, dearly.

Why is it that we with skills, are so neglectful in giving the benefit of our expertise to our own family?  I will strive to do better.

~MB

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Tags: Accomplishment, Calendars, Cotton Fabric, Dear Friends, Enough Money, Five Bucks, Happy Christmas, Human Consciousness, Hundred Years, Last Time, Massage Therapist, Origins, Planning Stages, Price Tag, Proverb, Sayings, seamstress, Shoemaker, Skirt, Soft Cotton